a carefully researched scoop on news not usually available on any other media channel or in many cases noted before it appears in conventional media from an insiders perspective. The views are that of the author and are not guided by any other person or organization. A truly unique and independent opinion of SRI LANKA TODAY

Friday, May 27, 2016

500 people determine how this Country is Governed for their Benefit only!

Let us put aside that the fact that just
1,000 families control over 50% of the wealth that exists worldwide. Let us
only look at Sri Lanka’s predicament.

There are about 500 individuals who
control Sri Lanka, make most of the money and control all avenues of our lives.
They are roughly the same people who were doing so during the Mahinda Rajapakse
government, as those now in the Maithripala Sirisena government. Frankly, they
are the smartest people in terms of making sure ONLY what they want happens in
Sri Lanka.

Those who currently govern merely are
lackeys of theirs, being given some crumbs to feel important JUST TO DO THEIR
BIDDING. It is debatable who among them are acting as proxies for the MR
daylight robbery of the Country, and how that wealth is divided, but there is
NO question that MR and his extended family ensured they also joined this 500
during their term of office, by raping the Country along with the rest of them and
sharing the spoils.

It is only due to the fact that the 225
people in Parliament calling themselves MPs are either doing the bidding
directly of these 500 or are indirectly doing EXACTLY what they want, except some
of the 225 MPs just don’t know so.

The real issue is that the people of Sri
Lanka continue to permit this daylight robbery of the Nation, due to their
choices of people they elect to govern us, and don’t realize that they are mere
puppets in a game, where they pay the taxes, and in short are the slaves of the
500 and lackeys of the political hierarchy, and both have fooled them to
believe they are anything but serfs and pawns in an elaborate game of chess
called HOAX!

In the inequality stakes of Sri Lanka,
they make sure that we remain one of the most unequal countries on earth, but
use an elaborate charade to show the world otherwise. I know there are a few
honest people dotted around this Country, who realize this issue, but are
hamstrung, as all the establishment is either willingly or unknowingly
supporting this state of play, because they believe it is the only way for them
to survive to meet their daily obligations. They don’t want to upset the apple
cart of their easy life, and allow them to be used from above, to maintain the
status quo.

It is this stranglehold on the various
arms of power in Sri Lanka, that the 500 have cleverly built, that serves them
without the arms knowing who the master is that they serve. They believe it is
the politician, but in reality the politician is merely the conduit through
whom they exercise this enormous power. It is through the ignorance of the masses
that this will survive always.

THE IMF and World Bank and other lending
agencies from China etc. know this fact too, but if they want to do business
here, they also play ball, and look the other way at the daylight robbery.

Every BIG PROJECT whether it is the
prior Regime or the current one, is making sure that many of the 500 are the
main beneficiaries. It is the cream on top that they ensure they have for
themselves, and the people end up paying for the whole project, be it of any
benefit for the economy or not. Some are utter useless projects that just make
the people the debtors for the whole project as it does not yield a public
return. Others return something, but effectively the people pay twice for the
return.

If you take a motor car for example, an
MP gets a benefit of about Rs40M due to the tax free permit. So he can buy his
vehicle and ride around in it for Rs40M less than Mr ZEEE. However, if Mr ZEEE
does not use a permit and buys a car on the open market for Rs60M, including
theRs40M tax, you can be assured his whole cost of Rs60M is from money he
creamed off a project, that the people of Sri Lanka are paying the interest on
for the next 50 years! The fact that the Country received a tax of Rs40M is
merely a transfer of some funds from what he took from the people being given
back to the people. None of it earned!

Only because there are about 10 honest
people in Sri Lanka who earn, pay their taxes and buy the car from taxed
income, and are able to do so as they are sufficiently wealthy, due to building
a business over time, can we be proud of out of the other 500 who control the
economy. How small the truly honest are!

I grant that in business, it is the
first Rs100M that is difficult to earn, and that is done through a questionable
Govt. contract, then it is plain sailing as even to qualify for new
multibillion rupee contracts you have to be big enough to give Bank Guarantees,
that ensure that only the rich share the spoils and the others don’t even have
a chance at making a play.

It is NO secret that only the people
with assets can borrow billions from banks, because they have the collateral,
and so in a Country that has the lowest taxation regime in the world, it is a
license pure and simple for the wealthy to become even more wealthy, something
fewer people can do in high tax countries such as the USA. Sri Lankan taxation
system has so far been unable to asses the true profits from businesses, that
are very clever at hiding the real gains, and added to that with NO INHERITANCE
TAXES are able never to have their wealth taxed, permitting them unbridled
ability to increase their wealth.

The transfer of much of this wealth off
shore has further impoverished the public who are still paying interest on
money already in foreign bank accounts.

The reader would say that it is just the
way the system works, and there is nothing that can be done about it, but I beg
to disagree.

Sri Lanka unlike Scandinavia does NOT
have a culture of people being honest in declaring their income and wealth, so
neither gets taxed at any level. They hide every bit of their earnings. Like
the recent case when the Govt. threatened to bring CGT, or capital gains tax,
it was promptly withdrawn due to pressure from the richest people who can
easily pay it, but they would have had to part with a little bit of their gains,
and so they did not like it.

We have NO PHILANTHROPY amongst the
wealthy and only a few families who have given their wealth away to social
causes. In the USA it is very different. Just look at Bill Gates, he has given
away 98% of his wealth and only needs 2% for his future generations to live
comfortably.

We have people who may believe that it
is essential to take it with them when they depart this world. The funny thing
is that acquiring wealth in Sri Lanka seems to be the important thing, NOT
spending it. At least if they spend it will go to parts of the economy. Buying
Rs100M apartments is NOT spending. It is acquiring, but the person buying would
argue he is spending! That is how warped this greed of wealth acquisition is.

I went through this whole scenario above
to show how deeply entrenched this system is against development, fair play and
equity in the economy to spread to all walks of life so all the people are
beneficiaries of development and wealth creation of our economy. This can only
be done with GOOD GOVERNANCE, not the type expounded by the Govt. which has the
same practices as the past, but by a change in the whole system of government
that I have advocated at length in this blog for years, if you have cared to
read it, and the thousands of pages contained therein over 7 years.

After a lifetime of study, I am
convinced that the only way to break this cycle and choose what is best for the
people, when elected representatives make decisions on behalf of the public is
to restrict the term of ANY ELECTED PUBLIC OFFICE TO FIVE YEARS. SO NO MAN OR
WOMAN CAN HOLD PUBLIC OFFICE FOR MORE THAN FIVE YEARS. The Parliament will
always have only new members at each election, and NOT from some previously
elected position in a lower body such as Provincial or Pradeshiya.

We will then ONLY have elected people
who will come forward to serve their Country and NOT take from it as has been
the case for the past 70 years. NO COMPROMISE here. It is the simplest method
of righting the wrong of the past, and a simple step to take that will turn the
tide, back to the PEOPLE!